


Secret Place

by dramaticallytrying



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Cardverse, F/M, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 08:56:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15860394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dramaticallytrying/pseuds/dramaticallytrying
Summary: That day was supposed to be just like any other: do your work, hold a meeting with Ivan, Roderich and the counselors, greet the nobles and then finally go to her place. What she hadn't expected was that she'd have found someone there.





	Secret Place

Elizabeta hated living in the palace.  
Of course she rigorously and diligently attended to her duties and tried to be as good a queen as possible, peasants and workers of the castle alike bowed to her and smiled politely when she passed and even the royals of the neighboring kingdoms held her in high regard.   
Still, the appearance of the mark of Clubs on her back and the striking of the Sacred Clock upon her touch turned her life in a grey flow of endless dullness and boredom.  
At first she had hoped that marriage would have brought love and passion in her new life, but King Ivan's companionship turned out to be one built on interminable silences, frequent distance and put up acts in front of the curious nobles of the court.  
And so she picked the habit to mount her horse and go to the woods near the castle as often as she could to escape its stuffy, boring life: going to the forest eased her nerves, and it reminded her of when she'd explore the fields near her hometown as a child. A couple weeks prior she found a beautiful glade a bit to the east: the meadow was scattered with beautiful flowers and the trees offered nice sheltering from the hot, summer rays; truly a locus amoenus. Sometimes she'd bring a book, sometimes she'd bring her sword to exercise and release some of the tension in her body and other times she'd bring nothing and just enjoyed the silence. Elizabeta fell in love with her secret glade right away.

That day was supposed to be just like any other: do your work, hold a meeting with Ivan, Roderich and the counselors, greet the nobles and then finally go to her place. What she hadn't expected was that she'd have found someone there.  
The strange man weirdly didn't notice her and her horse right away, but just after looking at the horns on his head and at his tail she realized that he was a Joker: a magical being connected to the magical flow of the land, someone able to meddle in the Sacred Clock's work. There weren't many of them anymore and, since they were mostly known for being mischievous troublemakers, not many people really bothered with the decline of their kind.  
She purposely stomped her feet as she walked to make more noise, and at that point the Joker finally turned and looked her way.   
She had never seen someone with red irises, but she couldn't imagine him having eyes of any other colour, and she found herself lost in them. Specularly, the Jocker found himself lost in the green of her eyes, and he too realized that in front of him wasn't any normal human, but the Queen of Clubs herself.  
He was the first to break the silence, and spoke without ever taking his eyes off the beautiful woman who stood in front of him.

«Your presence brightens this place, my Queen» he started «but why have you come here, when in your castle there's a court eating out of your hand, and where it would be proper of a sovereign to be in?»  
Elizabeta couldn't feel hostility in his tone, but simple curiosity.  
«I've come because I find peace in this place, Joker» she stopped talking to tie her horse's reins to a branch, then started again and sat in front of the man «What's your name? How do you know about this place?»  
«It's Gilbert, my Queen. I used to live in a village nearby when I was a child, and I've known about this place since then. Now that I've come back from my travels and that I live there again, I've decided to come here as I used to.»  
The Queen smiled at that «Gilbert, would you mind if I came here too? Maybe you could tell me about those travels of yours.»

Gilbert grinned at her, and the world around her gained a bit of colour once again «I'd be honored to.»

**Author's Note:**

> I remember I was in my regular pruhun remembrance phase when I wrote this, too bad it's so short.


End file.
